1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept generally relates to machinery-implemented image forming such as through a printing control apparatus, an image forming apparatus, and a printing control method. More particularly, the present general inventive concept is directed to a printing control apparatus, an image forming apparatus, and a printing control method which are capable of speeding up processing of an extensible markup language (XML) paper specification (XPS) file by the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As used herein, an image forming apparatus is an apparatus that renders printing data generated by a terminal device such as a computer and tangibly produces the rendered printing data on a recording medium. Examples of such an image forming apparatus include copiers, printers, facsimile machines, and multi-function peripherals (MFP) incorporating the functions of the aforementioned devices into a single device.
Certain image forming apparatuses are equipped with an XPS emulator so as to be able to print an XPS file. The same image forming apparatus may include an emulator to print data that are written in page description language (PDL) such as postscript (PS) and printer command language (PCL).
An XPS file is an electronic file in a predetermined and specified layout by which a document format can be maintained and can be shared with other devices. Additionally, the XPS file systemizes all resources necessary to describe a corresponding document or job in a directory structure and then combines the resources with data describing reference relationships among the resources using XML in a compressed data format such as the well-known ZIP format.
However, printing options for the XPS file are set within a data structure referred to as a “PrintTicket” of the XPS file making it difficult to perform pre-processing operations on the XPS document, such as those specified in PDL printing data.
When a document is printed by way of PDL printing data such as PS and PCL, one or more printer job language (PJL) commands are transmitted to an image forming apparatus before printing data are transmitted. In this way, the image forming apparatus is informed as to how the printing data are to be processed. On the other hand, when printing an XPS file, the image forming apparatus does not receive prior information as to how printing data are to be processed; it must first perform unzipping and/or parsing the XPS file. Therefore, there is a need for a method by which a printing option necessary for pre-processing an XPS file can be analyzed and applied prior to the onset of printing operations.